|
Author: Stephen Bucaro Article source: http://www.macosx.com/. Used with author's permission.
Any kid, and their grandmother too, can make a webpage. There are many "wysiwyg" webpage design applications that let you create a webpage as easy as typing text. But only a few people can create a WEBSITE. The stumbling block is knowing how to link webpages together to form a website. I have seen many websites that consist of a single webpage - about a mile long!
The first problem is that websites are contained in virtual directories. You know that your webpages can be found at yourdomain.com, but the actual path to yourdomain.com on the web server may be known only by the system administrator. And the system administrator can move your website to a different folder, or even a different computer, without changing its virtual address.
The second problem is that most people don't know how to write a relative link. Relative links have the advantage that you don't need to know the path to the webpage that you want to link to, you only need to know where it is "relative" to the webpage containing the link.
Designing Your Directory Structure
The first step to implementing a website is to design the directory structure. Let's design a directory structure for a simple download website. The website consists primarily of articles and digital material that visitors can download. You could just dump everything at the top level of the website. Good luck maintaining that website!
To keep the files organized, you need to create sub-directories (folders) on the website. Even though the website consists only of articles and digital downloads, you need five sub-directories, as described below.
- articles
- downloads
- general
- common
- cgi-bin
You understand what the "articles" and "downloads" sub-directories are for, but what are the other three sub-directories for? It's standard practice to provide certain features on your website, as listed below.
- About
- Contact
- FAQ
- Privacy Policy
- Search
- Sitemap
- User Agreement
Each of these features requires a webpage. Instead of dumping the webpages at the top level of the website, or mixing them in with articles or downloads, let's put them together in a folder named "general" (I'm sure you can think of a better name).
All of your webpages use certain things in common, for example, your logo graphic. If your web server provides SSI (Server Side Includes) all your webpages can share a common header file and a common footer file. You might also define all your website's styles in a common style sheet. Let's put all of these files in a folder named "common".
Your contact page might use an email form. If your server provides server-side scripts, you would place the email form script in a folder named "cgi-bin". Cgi-bin stands for "Common Gateway Interface - Binary". Few people use CGI any more, and those that do don't use binary files, but the folder name has stuck as a traditional place to store scripts. Almost all websites come with a preconfigured cgi-bin folder, and the website may be configured so that the cgi-bin folder is the only folder with rights to run scripts.
I would also recommend that you create certain sub-directories for some of the above mentioned directories. Most web pages contain images. You could dump all the images in the same folder with the webpages, but when you get more than about 50 files in a folder, it becomes difficult to maintain. You should create an "images" sub-directory in the articles, downloads, and general directories. The downloads directory should also have a "files" sub-directory to store the downloads.
This arangement of directories and sub-directories will provide good file organization for the example website. Understanding my reasoning for this directory structure should help you to design a directory structure for the website you have in mind.
Default Page Configuration
Every website has at least one default webpage configured (also called the "home" page). The default webpage is the webpage that is returned when the user enters or clicks on a link containing only the domain name, without a specific file name. On a Unix or Linux web server, the default webpage will usually be "index.htm". On a Windows web server (IIS), the default page will usually be "default.asp".
The website administrator, or if your webhost provides the required "control panel" feature, you can actually configure any page to be the default page. If your web server has more than one default page configured, I would recommend removing all but the default page that you intend to use.
Now, let's assume that all of your webpages need to link to an image file named "logo.gif" stored in the "common" folder. The relative link on your default webpage would be as shown below.
"common/logo.gif"
The website file manager interprets this as "look in the folder named common for the file named logo.gif".
However, the link on any webpage contained in one of the sub-directories would be as shown below.
"../common/logo.gif"
The website file manager interprets this as "go up one level, then look down in the folder named common for the file named logo.gif".
This difference in the link may not be a problem unless you use SSI or ASP (Active Server Pages) to build your webpages from a common header file and a common footer file. Then you need a different link in the common file depending upon whether the page linked to the common file is the default webpage (where you would use common/filename) or a webpage contained in a sub-directory (where you would use ../common/filename). There are several ways to solve this problem.
1. If your website has a server-side scripting engine like ASP or PHP and you know how to program, you could implement code that selects the proper link.
2. You could use the complete path, including the domain name, on all pages. This will cause problems if you ever have to move your website to a different web host (Until all the dns servers across the planet have been updated).
3. You could put your home page in a sub-directory, for example "common", and make your default page into a re-direct to your home page. Then you would use "../common/filename" for all links. The following meta tag, placed the head section of your default webpage, will immediately redirect the users browser to your real home page.
meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0,url= "http://yourdomain.com/common/homepage.htm"
In this article, I showed you how to design a directory structure for your website and how to create relative links to link all your webpages together to form a website. Website visitors don't like to do a lot of scrolling, so try to keep your webpages to only two or three screens high. Please, no more websites that consist of only one mile long webpage!
Copyright(C) Bucaro TecHelp.
Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included. About The Author
Stephen Bucaro
To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp.
Insurance For All Your Gadgets
Personalisation, Digitalisation, Mobilisation, these 3 words represent your life today. Here in the 21st century our lives have become more and more reliant on ...
Home Mortgages: Should You Apply Now?
Thinking about a new mortgage or refinancing your current one? Then you need to know what's happening with interest rates and what's likely to happen in the fut...
Tropical Christmas
While Christmas has the same origin the world over, the Christmas experience varies according to the country. A tropical Christmas, in a poor country, is very d...
How to Hire a Web Designer/Programmer for Your Website
Hire a designer or a programmer for your website is a daunting for any business entrepreneur. Remember that you're the important part of a design process. It is...
Be Creative: 10 Easy Steps To Increase Your Confidence, Creativity and Cash In The Attention Economy
Be more creative, have creative ideas and learn how to turn those ideas into confidence and cash.
Online Credit Card Processing - How to Accept Credit Cards - Ecommerce 101
Hi Nick, I saw that you have a company offering e-commerce that allows me to accept credit-cards... how does your company (or any company offering e-commerce so...
How to Overcome Being Overqualified
Here's how to prepare for and avoid the negative perception of being "overqualified" for a job.
How You Can Use Your Kitchen to Develop an All Natural Skin Care Regimen
Learn how to start your own all natural skin care regimen from common household items. No longer will you need to rush to the pharmacy in order to keep your ski...
Blog Construction
Blogs like all forms of writing are an art form that takes knowledge and practice to do well. Writing…Blogs…Blogs are on-line journals where people express them...
Managing Life Changes the Tetris Way (or How to Let the Blocks Fall with Skill and Grace)
This article offers insights and advice for thriving through life change, both great and small, by applying rules and strategies from the popular video game Tet...
A Credit Card Glossary of Terms
Listed below you will find a quick description of the most common credit card industry related terms and phrases.
A Visualization Exercise on Managing Expectations for Adults with ADD
As adults with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), we often find ourselves excited by new ideas and plans, but overwhelmed by what it will take to reach the goals...
The Cracked Pot
Some experiences you never forget. In some of them there is great learning. Many years ago I had such an experience that remains with me to this day. It shows...
Diagnosis and Treatments of Cerebral Palsy
This artical gives a brief diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Also explains the diffeent treatments available, including Physical therapy, Speech-language pathology a...
The Secrets of the Super-Traders
There are certain characteristics that all successful traders share regardless is they trade, stocks, options forex or futures. These same principles also apply...
Customer-Involving Signage and Selling
If you own a consumer-serving business where people must walk in the door for
your to make money, here's some very specific, easy ways to spur sales and isnpir...
Love Is All You Need... Or Is It?
Why so many relationships don't work and what to do about it. The strategies for building a successful business that can be just as effective in helping you to...
The Irish Harp
To tell the history of the Irish harp is to tell the history of the Irish people. This ancient folk instrument with its beautiful, delicate sound is played toda...
Magnetic Sponsoring: The Next Evolution in Home Based Business
To be successful, one must do what successful people have done. One successful entrepreneur shares his knowledge after a five-year struggle to find the perfect...
How to Make Good Use of Your Web Conference Session
Some easy to use tips on how to make effective use of any web conferencing session.
Finding Information On Different Hair Growth Systems
Hair growth systems are often very good, but you need to find out exactly what it is you need for your condition.
Down On Your Luck? Heres How You Get Over The Hump!
It's time to put a bad rumor to rest right now. Good things don't happen to you because you have "good luck." And, bad things don't happen to you because you ha...
Fake a Tan with Sunless Tanning Lotion
A great tan is associated with health and beauty. While a bronze look is desirable, especially in the summer or on holiday -- we all know the dangers of the sun...
How to Outline your Book and Chapters with Mindmapping
Mindmapping is better than linear outlining because authors can use flexible thinking and relativity in writing their book. One can add and subtract a thought o...
|
Print this page